This past weekend, a large group of Jewish Israeli teens attacked three Arab teens in Jerusalem’s Kikar Zion (Zion Square) while an even larger crowd of Israelis looked on. This attack was reported within hours of a firebombing of a Palestinian taxicab outside the Gush Etzion settlement of Bat Ayin. This pattern of violence reflects alarming and disturbing trends in Israeli society that threaten to tear the nation apart; erode the values of democracy, tolerance, and equal rights; and threaten the Zionist endeavor.

In light of the violence in Israel this weekend perpetrated by extremist Israeli Jews, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Robert Orkand, President of the Association of Reform Zionists of America, said in a public statement:

“A terrible price has been paid in lives lost, health destroyed and comity among the peoples of Israel damaged. We pray for the healing of the injured and call on the Israeli judicial system to hold the perpetrators accountable.”